UTEP football: Eric Tomlinson leads TE unit looking for some depth

For several years, a ritual of UTEP's spring was hyping up a deep tight end corps, and for long spells last fall, Eric Tomlinson finally made production meet billing.

In the process, what all that depth meant was that Tomlinson had a nice supporting cast behind him, and with the 6-foot-7 bruiser back after a tantalizing junior season, cycling in new faces behind him seems the only real question.

What isn't questioned is what Tomlinson can do when opportunity comes his way in an offense that puts a premium on tight-end play.

In a four-game stretch last year from weeks three through six, he caught 19 passes for 169 yards before Jameill Showers got hurt. After a few games when the entire offense was lost, Tomlinson closed the last two games with eight more catches for 109 yards when not much else was working.

There is something to build on for 2014.

"Eric Tomlinson is one of the hardest workers on the team," coach Sean Kugler said, shifting into a tone he only uses with a few of his favorite players. "He's a leader, he doesn't say much, he's a competitive player who can block and catch. He'll have a chance to play at the next level."

"He's playing at a high level, he's doing all the little things," said tight ends coach Brian Natkin, a former all-American tight end for the Miners. "He's practicing hard, finishing runs, playing physically."

That's always been the same. What's different is that in the past he was the young member of the group, even last season as a junior when seniors Craig Wenrick and Kevin Perry were playing alongside him.

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Now he and fellow senior Katrae Ford are the seniors and the only members of a five-player tight end corps who have seen the field.

"I try to go out and play hard and hopefully the other guys will watch and do the same," Tomlinson said. "I'm excited to play in this offense because it gives us a chance to make plays and help the team out. All in all it's about winning."

Behind Tomlinson, there is competition everywhere. Ford, who has played in both tight end and special teams capacities for the past two years, is the most obvious answer for the No. 2 tight end spot, which is a key one for a team that often uses two-tight end sets. Ford has been good in that role all spring.

"Not just me but the tight ends as a whole need to step up and take a big role this year," Ford said. "I'm taking a leadership role, guiding the young guys. I'm trying to get better every second, every moment, trying to embrace a leadership role."

That leadership is important because the Miners didn't add any tight ends in the 2011 and 2012 signing classes. Last year they brought in Cole Rogers, now a redshirt freshman, and this year they added junior college transfer Nick Jones, a 24-year-old Army combat veteran, and true freshman Sterling Napier, who has already graduated high school and is with the team.

"We usually travel with four tight ends so there's a lot of competition for the second and third spots" behind Tomlinson and Ford, Kugler said.

"We might play three, four, even five of them so they all have to be ready," Natkin said. "That's going to be a battle throughout spring ball."

Jones, who had 214 receiving yards for Erie Community College in New York last year, is the most experienced of the group.

"I'm taking it day by day, this is all new to me, another step from where I came from," Jones said. "In JUCO, I was one of the best ones out there. Here, everybody was the best player on their (previous) team. Sometimes I do (feel like a veteran), sometimes I feel like I'm 21 again.

"I'm learning."

That's true of much of the tight end corps, which has a good one to learn from in Tomlinson.